A few hours in Mexico
Further down the road is Yuma. Ever since leaving Lake Mead we have seen a steady stream of RV’s heading north. It’s time for some of the snow birds to return home. Yuma is an RV’s winter mecca. There are many RV parks but people also boondock out of town. We drove past a number of “groups” about 20 miles out of town. Boondocking means that you are camped, usually in the middle of no-where with no hook ups (water, electric, sewer) and it is free (unless you are in the long term areas of Arizona, then you need to pay $180 for the season that runs from November to April). Sometimes it is not much different from other places that you pay. The BLM land we camped on near Cibola NWR cost $15 a night and we got nothing except a nice view, not even water. Apparently they had drilled a bore but the water was contaminated. We could have bought a yearly pass for $75 which covered 4 sites with a maximum of 14 days in each one. We have more interesting places on our list to go to, but it would be a good option if you are just filling in time.
In Yuma we found another BLM campground about 12 miles out of town. No services here either but it’s free and we have lots of room around us. You register with the camp host who looks like he’s been there for eternity and he gives you a sheet of paper with the date you need to leave (14 days hence). The only rule is that you can’t park within 15’ of someone else and no-one with attitude is allowed to stay.
We had come here for a number of reasons:
1) because we’d knew lots of people come here in winter;
2) because we wanted to go to Mexico and get our teeth cleaned. You don’t drive into Mexico as you need to buy insurance to cover your vehicle. You pay $6 to park in a carpark on the Californian side and just walk over the border. You don’t go through any customs going in, but you need your passport to get out. The town of Los Algodones is very well known for doctors, dentists and pharmacies all with very low prices compared to the USA;
3) we knew it would be warm there!; and
4) it was on the way to our next destination.
When we left Cibola we didn’t realise it was Saturday so we will need to wait until Monday to visit Mexico. This will give us a much-needed break from all the driving we have done over the last couple of weeks.
It’s your typical desert town except the number plates on the cars are from a wide variety of states up north including Canadian ones. ATV’s out in the desert have replaced the snowmobiles we saw out in the mountains.
The temperature is in the mid 80’s, so we are finally warm.
Mexico was pretty uneventful. You stay within the four blocks of the border. There are many many pharmacies, dentists, doctors and a few hairdressers and places to eat. We had our teeth cleaned for $30 cash, bought some pharmaceuticals from the chemist and some toffee coated pecans from a local.
In Yuma we found another BLM campground about 12 miles out of town. No services here either but it’s free and we have lots of room around us. You register with the camp host who looks like he’s been there for eternity and he gives you a sheet of paper with the date you need to leave (14 days hence). The only rule is that you can’t park within 15’ of someone else and no-one with attitude is allowed to stay.
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| Humming bird in our campground |
1) because we’d knew lots of people come here in winter;
2) because we wanted to go to Mexico and get our teeth cleaned. You don’t drive into Mexico as you need to buy insurance to cover your vehicle. You pay $6 to park in a carpark on the Californian side and just walk over the border. You don’t go through any customs going in, but you need your passport to get out. The town of Los Algodones is very well known for doctors, dentists and pharmacies all with very low prices compared to the USA;
3) we knew it would be warm there!; and
4) it was on the way to our next destination.
When we left Cibola we didn’t realise it was Saturday so we will need to wait until Monday to visit Mexico. This will give us a much-needed break from all the driving we have done over the last couple of weeks.
It’s your typical desert town except the number plates on the cars are from a wide variety of states up north including Canadian ones. ATV’s out in the desert have replaced the snowmobiles we saw out in the mountains.
The temperature is in the mid 80’s, so we are finally warm.
Mexico was pretty uneventful. You stay within the four blocks of the border. There are many many pharmacies, dentists, doctors and a few hairdressers and places to eat. We had our teeth cleaned for $30 cash, bought some pharmaceuticals from the chemist and some toffee coated pecans from a local.
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